A more deliberative treatment of tax reform may be put off further into the future unless it becomes a campaign issue now.

President Obama has called out "corporate deserters" for using foreign acquisitions to move their company headquarters offshore. He even sent Treasury Secretary Jack Lew in search of congressional support for legislation on the issue. But the fact is that there's little or no chance of such action before the November elections or even in the near future.

Maybe the issue just doesn't resonate with the electorate. Warren Buffett, who has supported the president in other areas in the past, has defended Burger King's (BKW) announced acquisition of the Canadian chain Tim Hortons (THI) , the air basically went out of the Obama administration's anti-inversion balloon.

The only strategy left for the administration is to issue executive orders. President Obama is expected to announce some kind of action as early as this week to limit tax inversions. There are questions about whether or not the administration has the authority to make such executive orders. Most everyone agrees, Republicans as well as Democrats, that there is a problem with the corporate tax laws and tax reform is needed.

However, the approach taken by the Obama administration was ill-conceived and relatively short on content because of the nature of the effort. The administration saw tax inversion issue as a possible issue that would excite the Democratic Party base and provide needed votes in the fall election.